Sandre Kaldun
DM Handle Sangreal Description Eye Color: Blue Hair Color: Black Height: 6' Weight: 200 lbs Age: 17 Place of Origin: Andor some Borderlands ancestry Stats Rank: Tower Guard Warder Weapon Score: 14 Paths and Disciplines: Not Chosen Yet Primary Weapon: Not Chosen Yet Secondary Weapon: Not Chosen Yet Tertiary Weapon: Not Chosen Yet History Serenla Sedai watched as the last two players in Andor's yearly stones tournament carefully pondered their moves. She herself was good, but came as an observer not wanting to attract too much attention. It was not the game itself this time that drew her. Not the crowd or the party that would follow and certainly not the summer heat. She came to watch one of the competitors. A boy of seven years. A boy who had reached this final match. The crowd was silent. A servant sneezed and got some harsh looks from the onlookers. The boy, Sandre she heard him called, waited patiently as the older man he was facing made his move. Sandre had obviously forseen this and made his move immediately, getting a strange look from his opponent. The crowd was kept back a distance but a smile crept over Serenla's face. The boy had both flanks. One move only would get the old man out of this bind, but he did not take it. The game was over quickly after that. The prize money no doubt went to his father. The Kaldun family was a small house. They owned some iron mines which doubled as a stone quarry. No doubt Sandre being a second son with a knack for strategy would get the training he needed to be a general. Serenla decided (A few letters made to the right people with a well worded "suggestion" might help in that pursuit.) Then she would wait to see if a few hours of work would bear fruit. ****************************************************************** Sandre's amusement that a stones tournament would attract such fine teachers never ceased. He was learning to be a General. Tactics and the Game of Houses, and just raw academic knowledge became his bread and butter. Only a few hours a day were spent exercising or pursuing hobbies. He prefered Blacksmithing. Every male in his family knew a bit about it. It was where their roots were. He would swim for exercise and on occasion would practice throwing knives with his father. Time spent with the knives was their bonding time. At night though, he would lay awake gazing at the stars. He did not have any friends other than his older brother and his teachers. He was fourteen and had never kissed a girl... as he thought about it (Kissed a girl? I hardly have time to look at them!). He had seen them, been attracted to a few. Had fantasys as every young man does. Had crushes. He just had no experience with them. "Its ok." his father would say. "We will get you married when your fifteen and you can learn all you need to know when your not working." He rolled over. (Married? I dont even know how to talk to them. What am I supposed to say? Hi Im Sandre your new husband, so do you think that banded mail is a better choice for infantry than plate and mail?) He supposed it didnt matter at the moment. He was to leave for the Borderlands with his father soon. His father was to meet with some of the commanders during a get together to decide how to defend the kingdoms for the year. His father would supply much needed iron. Iron was needed everywhere but the Kaldun family had Shienaran blood as well as Andor blood. Plus he would be allowed to sit in on the Generals making their plans. Just sit though. He would not speak unless spoken to. The journey took longer than expected. Moving large quantities of iron ingots would do that though. They would be staying with family in Shienar. While there he would train in weapons with his cousin. He had met his cousin only a couple times before but they became fast friends, if overly competitive ones. He would be exposed to new ways of working out and handling weapons in the months spent there. He would also be there for political reasons. To attract a wife no doubt or a General's eye for employment. Training in weapons, that was the part he was in disbelief about. He had held a sword once but that was only because he was helping make it in his time away from books and teachers. He had held a spear once on the way to the Borderlands for one of his house's armsmen while he relieved himself and that was the extent of it. He threw daggers but... well he never had thought to use them like a weapon. The hours at least he was comfortable with. When trying to learn his cousin's routine he spent most of his time fumbling around and working out constantly. He wore armor for the first time, and ran in it. His cousin laughed every time he had to stop. He sparred often (and lost often). He fumbled with several weapons and by the third month, he had managed to shoot a second level bow (albeit not accurately) and not to cut himself more than once a day with a sword. He still had not won a single sparring lesson against his cousin. He prided himself on the things he could beat his cousin in. Knife throwing of course, swimming, and academics. He got the hang of some of the exercises. He didnt understand the pushing up from the ground hard enough to clap your hands together nor the spreading your legs and standing knees bent and upper body stiff for extended periods of time. His cousin of course insisted it was necessary. There were advisors and commanders from through out the Borderlands at the meeting. It was a meeting to plan how they could best work together to keep the land safe and to trade resources. Sandre watched quietly as they planned with the various maps with various tokens on the table representing troop units. He had been told to stay quiet and listen. The day turned to night and one by one the commanders retired to their beds. Soon there was only a woman in a green silk dress and himself in the pavilion tent. He walked back in after helping a rather intoxicated Saldean to his tent and saw her fussing over the maps and tokens. Trying various tactics he noticed in a common mental exercise of making strategys work in places they shouldnt. Looking at the map of a famous area around Tarwins Gap where many battles occurred every year she was placing tokens for a tactic called the "Wheel Formation" Where calvary would ride a circle around the infantry who was circled around the archers. It would allow the entire army to be mobile and would make them a harder target for archers. The problem was lack of space for the formation. He looked the woman in the eyes. She seemed too young to be a commander. He worried he might be speaking to a queen. A hardened one if her eyes said anything of her age. "May I?" he asked. She nodded. He placed the archers on the cliffs on both sides of the Gap. He placed a row of Palisades in front of them and made double lines. One line of spears behind one line of sword infantry then another Palisade until there were no more infantry. He placed the calvary in the gap itself. The Trollocs would have to sacrafice three of their own before they could even face a single dual line infantry then three more to get to the next line. The calvary would seem the weaker choice but they would have the Trollocs bottle necked in the Gap. All the while the the archers would be at a height advantage to rain arrows on the Trolloc horde or snipe them in the canyon should the calvary fail. It was a plan that would allow a few hundred to slay thousands. A perfect plan. **************************************************************** Serenla watched as Sandre placed the tokens on the map. The units chosen did in fact make a very bad wheel formation. She had watched a Saldean general do it however and was trying to duplicate his technique. Sandre himself seemed to have a hard time of it. A look of confusion spread over his face. Had he seen what the Saldean General had done to make the formation work he might have learned something. However the formation he chose was not that bad either. It was a perfect set up.... if you intended to fight the entire blight. It offered no escape to the archers or infantry desptite that it would take several times its numbers in the enemies. The formation was all or nothing. Defeat the enemy, or die. Despite the number of Trollocs growing in the Blight. It had not reached a point where this formation would be needed. Hopefully it never would. However for someone who was unfamiliar with warfare in the Blight and probably did not believe in Trollocs until a few months ago, it was the best one could expect. Serenla smiled at him as she thought to herself (Good job Sandre. Someday you could be a true threat to the world, but you will be bound to the Tower before I let that happen.) She added a hint of suggestion to her smile as though she were interested in more than his potential. It often surprised her what a smile and a pair of blue eyes could bring her. ***************************************************************** Sandre spent the next few days with Serenla as she called herself. Playing stones and discussing strategy. He thought he would be nervous around her. He hoped she was not spoken for. He found it so easy to share his hopes and dreams and to open up. She never said much and mostly let him babble on like a monkey in a tree. She would take his arm as he walked her from the command center every night back to her tent and he was all too conciouss of her touch. He had already decided to speak to his father about her. She was older... or younger, he couldnt say for sure. But she shared his interests and that was rare. Her eyes, blue like a coming storm. He was too aware that he would do anything for her short of becoming a Darkfriend. ***************************************************************** Serenla let the boy... no she couldnt call him that. In the Borderlands he would be considered a man a year now. In Andor maybe he would still be a child. She let him talk about his dreams and insecurities. She was aware of his growing attachment to her and knew she would have to break that loyalty. His loyalty would be to the Amyrlin and maybe someday an Aes Sedai. They were playing a game of stones the day she knew it was time to bring his loyalty to the tower or the damage caused by breaking his fondness for her would make him rebel against her plans. She was slowly losing the game. She may have known more of strategy than him but he knew stones. So simple and unchanging as stones is. Easy to learn to play, hard to master. "Lets have a wager on this one." he looked at her with a raised eyebrow. He was suspicious. Good. If he made it too easy to fool him he would be no good to the tower. "What kind of a wager?" He answered. She gave him the look. Feigning an interest. "If I win then three years from now you swear allegiance to my... queen." That seem to put him a little more at ease. Surely he had not heard of any evil queens? He looked as though he would not take that wager so a light brush of his hand with her fingers and the tension melted away. She hated manipulating him like this. It had to be done though. "I believe this game is almost over with my lady." She stared intently into his eyes. It was excrutiating. She wondered why she never got over the sick feeling in her stomach doing this to others, even if for the good of the world. "If I lose... well I am sure we can work something out." An empty promise. The game did appear to be won. She did see a way to turn it around. The coloring in his face said that his pulse had increased. No doubt adding his own imagination to the promise he would not see fulfilled. He nodded. She took the next move. Now doubt he had the next move planned and several contingencys. She showed a little bosom as she placed the stone and his eyes left the board. His next move was surely not the move he had planned. She managed to make a move after that would give her the game if he didnt respond correctly. She looked him in the eyes and he colored more realizing he had been caught staring. She only smiled. He did not make the right move on the board. She then used all her skill to crush him. She felt ill. Especially at the part she knew would come next. ******************************************************************* Sandre was could not believe his eyes when he realized he was beat (I lost! I lost? Wait... this is stones! I dont lose at stones!) looking at the board though he had in fact been soundly beaten. Then she rose, the looks and smiles gone. "Well that worked out well. You see if you had won then I would have known that you could never fully work with, work for, and take the advice of a woman in which case all your skills would have been useless to me. However if you can still fall for the charms of a woman then you are exactly what I have heard you are." Sandre was confused. She did not let him stay that way though. "I am Serenla, Aes Sedai. I came here to assist with the planning for this summer but I also was at the stones game you won as a child and have encouraged your learning on the side. While I did not expect you to be here I am glad to see my effort was worth it." Sandre was shocked. He had heard of Aes Sedai trickery but this? He shook his head. "Any other kingdom in the world and it would be ok but Tar Valon my father would never approve of." She smiled. "You leave him to me. Of course you are too young now so shall we say three years from today?" He nodded. "You still have a lot to learn Sandre. Try to remember that when you get to Tar Valon." His father did in fact agree to it with no small amount of arguing. ******************************************************************* As Serenla left that stones board and the young man sitting by it she walked more briskly than she should have. The man's heart was breaking with what he would see as betrayal. He would never know how much more hers was, if for different reasons. (I am sorry Sandre. Light I am sorry it was this way. I am not sorry for why I did it though.) She felt as though she needed a bath. Had she known that a few hours writing letters for a child stones champion would produce such a potential she would have planned more and had him sent to the tower in a way that would have saved them both pain. Her sisters would see this as a victory for the light. A few hours then a few days was the price for a strategist they would say. They would never know the price she felt it had taken on her soul. She had thought him a man, she realized that whatever he may learn and do now he still had hormones raging through his young body. She knew he would have been kept secluded to learn what he needed to know. She took advantage of those things. For the good of the light she did. She did NOT like the idea that his first experience with a woman who was not a relative or servant had to be like this. She shook her head as she entered the tent that was hers. She was still young, barely starting to take on the ageless features of an Aes Sedai and obviously not used to manipulating for the greater good should it upset her like this. (Light be good to him. He trusted and I took that, he was falling and I used that. I bound him before he could stretch his wings) ********************************************************************** As Sandre rode towards the city of Tar Valon. The white tower ahead and rolling green fields brushed slightly by the breeze he saw none of the beauty. Beauty had decieved him once and in the years since he had made sure it would not do so again. Anger went through him like diving into a cold river. He had been calm once. He still was, but it was different. He was clear headed in his rage. Anger had made it so he had not seen a moments rest since that day long ago. He took to training to the point of fanaticism. He had gotten into fist fights. Every time he hit someone else he didnt see them. He saw the naive young man who made a deal with a witch. That young man he felt deserved every ounce of pain he dealt out. His father had tried to have him married. Sandre chased the woman off. Made her feel so bad about herself that his father had to marry her off to his cousin. He clutched his cloak tighter as the breeze caught it and tried to carry it away. His side ached from a slice by a knife he had taken in a brawl, yet he welcomed the pain. It hardly seemed pain at all anymore. It felt the same as a good work out in his mind. All was lost. His bright future, years of training to be a commander was wasted, he had alienated his family towards the end. He did not hate and was not angry at Serenla was the odd part. It seemed that by the time he was not angry with her any more ten more reasons had sprung up from the time he was angry at her. He was not even sure sure why he was keeping his word. He did not want to see her. Did not want to be a rank and file peon like he was sure he would become. "Honor" he said aloud before he realized he said it. He shook his head as though denying that. The greatest battle he would lead, was going to be the one within himself. Category:Warder Bios Category:Biographies Category:WS 14 Category:Tower Guard